Duke hosts No. 3 Notre Dame and Mercer this weekend at Koskinen Stadium ... The Blue Devils will have four games under their belt at the end of the weekend, the most of any team in Division I lacrosse.

The Blue Devils are 1-1 after splitting with No. 9 Denver and Jacksonville last weekend.

The Series History

Duke and Notre Dame are meeting for the fourth straight season ... The Blue Devils lead the all-time series 7-4, but it is the Irish sporting the 3-2 mark since 2009.

Duke hosts Mercer for the second time after beating the Bears 18-5 in 2011, their inaugural season.

By the Numbers7 - Losses by Duke all-time in the month of February, three of which have come at the hands of Notre Dame8-6 - Head coach John Danowski's overall record against the Fighting Irish since the first meeting in 1983 at Hofstra6.0 - Goals scored per game against Notre Dame over the past five meetings96-25 - John Danowski's record in his six seasons at Duke11 - Players who had at least one assist in the win over Jacksonville, the most by Duke under head coach John Danowski4 - Of the top five teams in the preseason USILA national poll that Duke will face this season, including each of the top three21-2 - Duke's record in its previous 23 home games11 - Hat tricks by Jordan Wolf in his career, the most by any current Division I junior16.0 - Average number of goals scored per game by Duke and Notre Dame combined in past five outings

A Win over Notre Dame Would

Make Duke 40-7 in games in the month of February

Be Duke's eight win over the Irish and just first in regular season since 1993

Give head coach John Danowski his 317th career victory and 97th at Duke

Be the program's 485th victory

Be Duke's 120th win since 2005

Scouting Notre DameNotre Dame enters the 2013 campaign ranked third in the USILA preseason poll after advancing to its second consecutive NCAA Championship weekend in three seasons ... The Irish return eight starters, including five in the attack and midfield, from the team that finished 13-3 ... First team All-American John Kemp returns to anchor the defense, while All-BIG EAST pick Sean Rogers is the team's top returning scorer ... Notre Dame also welcomes a top freshman in Matt Kavanagh who helped lead the U.S. U-19 squad to the FIL World Championship this past summer ... Westy Hopkins and Conor Doyle also are back on attack after tallying 18 and 13 goals, respectively, a year ago.

Scouting MercerMercer comes to Durham after posting a 13-3 victory over Rollins College in its season opener ... Cole Branch led the Bears with four goals and three assists in the win ... Mike Nugent made seven saves on nine shots between the pipes, while Justin Evans won 9-of-15 restarts with eight ground balls ... Wilton McKown led the defensive charge with three caused turnovers.

Last Time Duke and Notre Dame MetNotre Dame held Duke to just three goals to post its third straight regular season victory over the Blue Devils, 7-3, in Notre Dame, Ind. ... The Irish outscored Duke 4-1 in the second quarter and pushed the lead to 7-2 in the fourth quarter ... Goalkeeper Dan Wigrizer made 16 saves in the loss, while Chris Hipps picked up four ground balls ... Jim Marlatt and Max Pfeifer both had two goals apiece in the win and Liam O'Connor won 6-of-11 faceoffs.

Last Time Duke and Mercer MetJosh Dionne netted three goals in his rookie season and Duke outscored Mercer 11-4 in the second half to win 18-5 ... The Blue Devils outshot the Bears 40-25 and won 21-of-25 faceoffs en route to the victory ... 18 current Duke players played in the first meeting between the two programs.

Regular Season vs. NCAA gamesDuke and Notre Dame faced off in the regular season for each of the past three years and in the NCAA Tournament each two of the past three seasons ... Duke is 0-3 in the regular season and 2-0 in the postseason ... The most glaring difference in the statistics for those games is Duke's ability to stop Notre Dame's offense in the postseason ... In the regular season games, the Blue Devils are allowing the 10 goals per game, while it drops to 5 in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke Statistics

RS

NCAA

Overall Record

0-3

2-0

Shots/Game

34

30.5

Goals/Game

5.67

6.5

Assists/Game

2.33

2.5

Points/Game

8

9

Shot %

0.167

0.213

GAA

10

5

GBs/Game

34

22

EMO

1-5(.200)

0-3 (.000)

Man Down

9-11 .(818)

2-3 (.667)

Clears

48-59 (.814)

29-32 (.906)

Faceoff %

27-56 (.482)

12-31 (.387)

Duke in the Month of FebruaryDuke is 38-7 in the month of February all-time and 12-5 under head coach John Danowski ... Three of those seven losses have come against Notre Dame in the past three seasons ... Duke has only lost twice in February, doing so in 2011.

Reaching the Perfect 10Since 2007, Duke is 85-6 when scoring at least 10 goals in a game ... The Blue Devils are 10-19 when being held to fewer than 10 scores ... Duke is 22-19 when allowing 10 goals in a contest and is 73-6 when holding opponents under 10 goals ... Notre Dame has held Duke to fewer than 10 goals in each of the five meetings since 2007, including a low of three in 2012.

Home Sweet HomeDuke had its 10-game home win streak snapped by Denver to start the 2013 campaign ... The Blue Devils are 21-2 in its previous 23 home contests ... Overall, the Blue Devils have fared well at home since 2005, going 75-8 overall ... Under head coach John Danowski, Duke is 60-7 in Durham.

Against Ranked OpponentsSince 2006, Duke has amassed a 70-28 (.714) record versus ranked opponents ... Duke is 0-1 so far in 2013 against ranked opponents after falling to No. 9 Denver 14-12 ... In 2012, Duke went 9-5 against ranked opponents with four of five losses coming to top-10 foes.

Against Unranked OpponentsSince 2005, Duke is 42-2 against unranked opponents ... The Blue Devils' lone losses to unranked foes both came against Ivy League schools ... The first was a 9-6 setback against Harvard, Feb. 22, 2009 and the most recent was a 7-3 loss to Pennsylvania, Feb. 26, 2011.

Balanced AttackIn two games 16 different Blue Devils have scored a goal and 11 players have at least one assist ... In the 21-9 victory over Jacksonville, Duke had 15 players with at least one goal and 11 different players dish out assists ... The 11 players with assists are the most by a Duke team under head coach John Danowski.

Career FirstsThere were a number of career firsts for the Blue Devils last weekend ... Six players registered their first collegiate goals and seven players overall posted their first points in a Blue Devil uniform ... Rookies Myles Jones, Deemer Class, Case Matheis, John Shaffer, Seamus Connelly each netted goals against Jacksonville in their second career games, while sophomores Tanner Scott and Justin George had their first goal and assist, respectively against the Dolphins ... Class was the lone rookie to score in his collegiate debut, handing out an assist versus Denver.

Walsh's Goal StreakJunior Christian Walsh has scored at least one goal in each of his past 11 outings ... He is one of 16 current Division I players to score a goal in at least 10 consecutive games ... Walsh owns 21 goals dating back to April 1, 2012 versus Syracuse.

Fowler Leads Faceoff GameJunior Brendan Fowler posted a strong debut as Duke's top draw man last weekend ... Fowler won 59 percent of his restarts and picked up 19 ground balls ... Against No. 9 Denver, the Wantagh, N.Y., native won a career-high 18 faceoffs and picked up a career-high 11 ground balls ... He followed that by going 12-of-21 from the X against Jacksonville with eight grounders ... His efforts earned him ACC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Wolf Climbing Career Points ListJunior attackman Jordan Wolf's 12 points to open the season pushed him into a tie for 26th on the Duke career scoring charge with 128 points ... He is 21 points shy of moving into a tie for the 20th position and is 70 points out of the top 10 ... In 42 career games, he has amassed 128 career points from 71 goals and 57 assists ... He tallied 51 points in his rookie season and had 65 points his sophomore campaign.

Wolf Among Nation's Assist LeadersJunior attackman Jordan Wolf is among 14 current Division I players with at least 50 career assists ... Wolf has 57 career helpers, including four this season to rank eighth nationally ... Wolf is the top junior overall nationally.

Up Next

Duke hits the road for the first time this season next week as it travels to take on Penn Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.